Lots of news… first, my brain seems to have rewired itself following the dengue fever, so apologies if this comes out muddled.
It looks like I’ll be in Canada in January… Ajaan wants me to go quickly and set up a monastery as soon as possible. He said April is too late to start. No time like the present, for sure. From the sounds of it, he knows he can help me right now, and the future of course is not sure.
So, I get to trudge through snow again… hoping to get some thicker robes before then.
I’ve been thinking about all the good places we have now, and it seems like a good idea would be to spend some time in each. So, if possible, I’ll be setting up some kind of rotating schedule, where I’m based in Canada most of the year and travel to Asia during the winter months. I wouldn’t need to worry about extended visas then, just spend a couple months a year in Thailand and the same in Sri Lanka.
The reasoning is that, while neither country has been overly helpful with visas or monastic affairs, both have been very welcoming as a teacher. The hope is that Canada will provide the freedom to set up a base, and the other countries can be used for scheduled retreats, where students can join at set times of the year.
sirimangalo.org needs some restructuring, hopefully that can be done in Canada. Sorry if the info right now is confusing or incomplete.
We’re going to make some effort to decide on a place to set up a base in Ontario. We’ve been talking here about whether renting a house somewhere as a temporary monastery might be a good start. There is also support to potentially buy a small piece of land somewhere if we can find a suitable place… if anyone has any connections or suggestions in this matter, please get in touch.
Eva’s here with her daughter, a beautiful little girl of four who was in her womb when last she came to practice with me. Ajaan says she has potential. She’s already doing walking and sitting with her mother.
Going to the forest on 26th. Maybe taking some monks along, and someone from USA joining us. Back to Bangkok around Jan 15, then off to Canada before 23rd.
Been spending the last month practicing and being with my teacher… helping with reporting, eating my one meal with him, etc. Just like old times. Been quite refreshing, but still tired more than usual. Surely subzero temperatures will help wake me up.
That’s about it… still a bunch of videos to publish on YouTube from SL, look for them over the next weeks. Oh, and someone recently alerted me to the fact that I now have 10,000 subscribers on YouTube… that’s pretty wow. Guess that’s a reason to keep making videos.
Otherwise, more when travel plans, etc. are settled.
Peace to all.